Plaintiff Must Pay Fees
On March 1, 2016, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals found that Nintendo’s Wii console does not infringe patents asserted by UltimatePointer, LLC. This decision confirms Nintendo’s win in a Seattle Federal court, where UltimatePointer claimed that the Wii infringed patent numbers 8,049,729 and 7,746,321.
The Appeals Court also confirmed the Seattle Court’s ruling that UltimatePointer was required to pay some of Nintendo’s attorney fees. UltimatePointer was found to have engaged in “bad faith, vexatious, [and] wanton” conduct when deciding to accuse products it had not investigated and that, in some cases, did not exist.
“We are very happy with this result,” said Ajay Singh, Director of Litigation and Compliance at Nintendo of America. “This case again demonstrates that Nintendo will vigorously defend itself and its innovations against patent lawsuits. It also demonstrates that, when justified, Nintendo will pursue all available options to recover attorney fees for improper litigation conduct. Nintendo continues to support reform efforts to reduce the unnecessary and inefficient burden patent cases like this one place on technology companies in the United States.”
